.......so now I know what Bazinga is and will be using that word at every opportunity, I was pleased to point out that my life is filled with Bazinga moments - I just hadn't realised that that was what they were!

But I digress, back to my pages. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will remember that I made sunflower cupcakes for Gracia's birthday, way back in April. As soon as I saw this kit I knew it would be perfect to make a page about the cakes.

Then once I had made that one I felt I just had to make another companion page with Gracia blowing out the candles on the cakes.

So I have made two pages from this kit and have no doubt that there will be at least one if not two hybrid pages of the cupcakes and candle blowing using this kit and I suspect many more as it is so bright and zingy - just up my street.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. I have just finished a paper lo, this evening, which I am very pleased with but cannot show it until it is up on the blog I have made it for.

2. An unexpected visit from a friend is always very welcome (waves to the person concerned)

3. Visiting friends after school and spending a lovely hour just chatting is also one of my favourite afternoon activities (waves to Mel and thank you for a lovely afternoon xxx).

3
comments:

I Went Wild!

16:53
Karen
4 Comments

I have just spent the weekend with 15 Rainbows and their leaders at a Rainbow Sleepover. The weather has been absolutely fantastic and the girls have had the best of times. We went to a dedicated area for scouts and girl guides which was safe, fun and just perfect as you would expect.

Our weekend was titled Rainbows Go Wild and boy did we live up to the theme. From the time they arrived at 3 pm on Saturday until they left at 2 pm today they did so much, only pausing for the occasional meal and minimal sleep! Boy are they going to be grouchy tomorrow! We sent them home ladened with goodies and absolutely filthy, some even looked like they had been up a chimney, their faces and hands were so black!

They made safari hats

The girls played for ages in the woods, something many of them had not had much experience of before and how they loved it! They spent ages peering down rabbit holes and moving piles of sticks from one place to another, making sea-saws with planks and building 'fires'. To be able to allow them free reign to roam about as they wished in such a safe environment was a joy to watch.

They made their own pizzas for tea

decorated animal wind chimes while their pizzas were cooking

polished off their pizzas and ate bowls of Rainbow Ice cream.

The blue M&Ms were too much of a temptation and I had to suck several to make my tongue a vibrant colour blue.

We then went back outside for the wild bird man who had come to show us a Harrier Hawk called Josh (who was vary naughty)

and a Boobock owl called Auckland.

They were absolutely awesome and flew, very low, over the girls heads!

It was then time for the campfire and songs with a Beaver pack who were also on site.

Then back to the cabin for a quick couple of games of bingo and bed. The girls eventually went to sleep at about 11pm and were awake again by 6.30am!

But while the girls slept I made these with the adults - little 3 x 3 maze albums to put our photos from the weekend in and we chatted until 1.30am - too late when you have a busy day in store the next day.

Breakfast and more craftsanimal masks

and animal bags(Ops forgot to take a photo of the bags)

Next was the safari so they all went off to find the animals that had been hung around the site and once each girl had collected an animal they had to answer the questions taped onto them.

Then it was off to find some fire wood to build a fire and toast marshmallows

and make smores (toasted marshmallows sandwiched between chocolate digestives) as a little morning snack.

Back to the lodge to make owl cakes for pudding and then off again for more fun in the woods.

After lunch there was only time for a little more playing outside before their parents came to take the exhaust and dirty girls home. I really don't think that some of them have ever had so much fun and gotten so filthy.

Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. The sun shone on our little expedition, out into the wild, all weekend.

2. The team that Roz had put together to run the weekend was absolutely fantastic.

3. The sheer joy, excitement and experience the girls gained from this weekend.

4
comments:

Today I have ...............

30 of these to paint in preparation for our Rainbow sleepover next weekend.

and 101 other things to do. BUT I really don't mind because yesterday I did this

and it is my all time fav colour combo! I adore lime green and when it is teamed with fuchsia pink and tangerine on a black background what more could you ask? Doesn't she look so funny with her fur all spiky!

Ops - a rogue piece of foam pad backing in the photo!

and lots of doodling

I made if for prompt 11 in The Color Room blog. If you have never been over to have a look I thoroughly recommend that you do as the sketches and colour combos are just fab. If I just have time to do one page a week then I head on over there and they never fail to inspire me.

This was my first time making this type of paper flower and they were just 'easy peasy lemon squeezy'

I have seen these loads of times on peoples los but they always made them using scalloped punches - which I don't have. I decided to just draw round a mug and they turned out just fine.

A little tutorial making paper flowers:-

1. Take a piece of crepe or tissue paper, mine was the width of the roll, and fold it in half length ways.

2. Fold it in half, half again and half again, you now have 16 layers.

3. Draw around a circular shape (mine was about 2.5 inches across).

4. Cut out and discard the piece with the drawing on so you now have 15 circles.

5. Pierce a hole in the centre and put in a brad, any old one will do as it wont show.

6. Ink around the edges.

7. Scrunch the top layer around the brad and continue to do this to all 15 layers.

8. Unscrunch the layers and arrange them to form a carnation type flower.

See 'easy peasy lemon squeezy' and so pretty.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. I can walk away with dignity and not fight back when someone is being rude (not a member of my family I might add) even though they interpreted this as sulking!

2. I spent yesterday evening with my two most favorite people socialising with some very interesting people and eating some very interesting food.

6
comments:

Loving The Little Crop

18:49
Karen
4 Comments

I am a strange and curious soul - because I was so looking forward to the little crop, and just knew that it would be fun, that I actually thought up the title of my blog post on my way to the crop at 10.00 this morning before I had even spent time with the girls or made any pages!

The crop did not disappoint as the company was fantastic, even though the lovely Sue was missing, the chat was varied, there were two babies for me to kiss and cuddle and I managed 1 lo, well two really but the second was one that I had cut everything out for and only needed to assemble. It still needs some journaling.The first lo was for this week's prompt from The Color Room. I am not entirely sure that I like it as they are not colours that I would choose to use myself but it is good to be dragged outside your box sometimes.

I used my favorite journaling method - Core D'ination card stock put through a Dymo and then sanded.

I also had a go at making some tissue paper roses - a bit more practice needed I think but they are getting there. Thank you to Elaine for her suggestion that I should use a Prima E-line gem in the centre of the card roses.

I have seen lots of los with curled corners recently so thought I would have a go and then decided to pop a little bit of blue lace under the curl.

A little heart and pin to finish off the ribbon running across the middle.

Also I have to show you two pages of my wedding scrapbook. I see this as a long term, filler, project that I will work on as and when I feel like it, with no rush to get it finished. Well it might be nice to finish it by February as we will have been married 25 years then.

I am not sure about the second one as it is a bit too sparse for my liking but I am not sure what I could add and still keep it fairly masculine.

The very generous Karen Cole let me use some of her beautiful Martha Stewart punches to make the embellishments for these pages. I spent 2 days with a pile of Pagemaps, cutting paper and punching out embellies then putting them into poly bags ready for my album.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. A lovely day spent with lovely people.

2. Gracia only has 1 more exam left - AS maths on the 23rd.

3. I have 17, wedding pagepacks made up with everything I need including pagemaps ready to grab and go whenever I want to.

4
comments:

Craft Catch Up

21:18
Karen
3 Comments

Sometimes you just come across a photo that makes your heart sing. I was browsing through my photos on my hard drive and found a folder that was from when Gracia and Josh went to London last year. There was a photo of their hands which they had drawn on and I just fell in love with it and digitally scrapped it.

I then decided that because I loved the sentiment of the page I just had to make a paper version. I used a PageMap sketch and changed the title as I loved these large alphas on the page but did not have enough for the original title.

I am embarrassed to say this was the total of my output from Saturday's crop. In fact, I finished it off this evening so on Saturday, from 10:00 to 6:00, I didn't even manage 1 lo. What has happened to my ability to crank out 4 or 5 los at a crop?

Over the past couple of weeks I have also made a digi lo for the Lift This challenge and a page using Shimelle Laine's latest template. So although I haven't found time to blog I made sure I found a bit of time to scrap.

Reasons to be cheerful

1. Gracia only has one more exam tomorrow and another in a couple of weeks time and all her exams for this year are over and done with.

2. Being able to find a little time to finish my scrap page today before cooking dinner.

3. Watching American Hot Rod and American Chopper on tv tonight. They are now my most favorite program at the moment!